Type 41 75 mm mountain gun

The Type 41 75 mm mountain gun is a Japanese license-built copy of the recoiling Krupp M1908 mountain gun. The Imperial Japanese Army requested specific changes from the basic Krupp model before entering production, to include changing the breech from a Krupp style sliding-breach to an interrupted screw and modifying the trail which allowed for increased elevation over the base M1908 model. ^[5]

Type 41 75 mm mountain gun
A Type 41 at the Yasukuni Shrine
Type	Mountain gun
Place of origin	Japan
Service history
In service	1908–1945
Used by	Imperial Japanese Army
Wars	World War I, Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, First Indochina War[1]
Production history
Designer	Krupp
Manufacturer	Osaka Arsenal
Unit cost	8,400 yen ($2,257 USD) in August 1939[2][3]
Produced	1908-1945[4]
No. built	3300~3800
Specifications
Mass	544 kg (1,199 lb)
Length	4.31 m (14 ft 2 in)
Barrel length	1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) L/19.2
Width	1.219 m (4 ft)
Crew	13
Caliber	75 mm (2.95 in)
Breech	interrupted screw
Recoil	Hydro-spring
Carriage	Box trail
Elevation	-18° to +40°
Traverse	6°
Muzzle velocity	435 m/s (1,427 ft/s)
Maximum firing range	7,022 m (7,679 yd)

Type 41 Mountain Gun located at the Royal Canadian Regiment Museum in London, Ontario. This example was captured during the Aleutian Islands campaign.

The number 41 was designated based on the year the gun was accepted, the 41st year of Emperor Meiji's reign, equivalent to 1908 in the Gregorian calendar after the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War.^[6] Originally it was the standard pack artillery weapon. After it was superseded by the Type 94 75 mm mountain gun, it was used as an infantry "regimental" gun with four deployed to each infantry regiment, and referred to as "rentai ho" (regimental artillery). Two gun shields were produced for the weapon: an early type which folded into thirds, and a late type which folded in half. The Type 41 mountain gun proved to be cheap to produce and useful as an infantry gun, especially in China, and remained in production from 1908 to 1945.^[7]

It could be manually carried or disassembled and carried by horse, making it convenient for use in mountainous regions and areas with rugged terrain.

Service

In service, the gun was operated by a thirteen-man crew consisting of twelve gunners and a squad leader. When the weapon was in service there would be an aimer, a loader, a firer, a person to swing the guns aim left or right, a person inserting the fuses into rounds and handing them to the loader, two gunners lying in reserve to the left and right of the gun, and the squad leader sitting a slight distance to the rear of the weapon. The remaining five men would ferry ammunition in relays from the ammunition squad, which would typically be in cover a few hundred meters behind the gun's position.

The weapon could be transported in complete by its thirteen-man squad or broken down into parts and carried on six packhorses using special harnesses, with a seventh horse carrying the ammunition.

Two types of impact fuse were available for the Type 97's 75 mm high explosive round: one with a delay of 0.05 seconds and another with a delay of 1 second. U.S. Army testing of the weapon at a range of 3,200 yards (2,900 m) resulted in 75 percent of the rounds falling in a rectangle measuring 20 by 30 yards (18 by 27 m). At its maximum range of 7,100 m or 7,800 yards, 75 percent of the rounds fell within a rectangle measuring 100 by 200 yards (90 by 180 m).

Type 41 75 mm mountain gun in the Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Type 41 mountain guns display in Surasakmontree Army Camp, Lampang, Thailand, 2016

The AP-HE round for the Type 41 mountain gun was largely ineffective against armor due to low muzzle velocity, thus the Type 41 mountain gun received priority development for a 75mm hollow-charge anti-tank round. The Type 2 HEAT round entered service in 1943 and was deployed to both China and the Pacific. ^[8]

Ammunition

• Type 98 high-explosive – 4.5 kg (9.9 lb)
• Type 97 high-explosive – 5.5 kg (12 lb)
• Type 94 high-explosive – 6.01 kg (13.2 lb)
• Type 90 high-explosive – 5.67 kg (12.5 lb)
• Type 95 armor-piercing high-explosive – can penetrate 20 mm of steel plate at 3,000 m – 6.2 kg (14 lb)
• Type 1 armor-piercing – 6.5 kg (14 lb)
• Type 38 shrapnel – 6.8 kg (15 lb)
• Type 90 shrapnel – 282 10.5 gram lead balls and 0.1 kg black powder bursting charge – 7.0 kg (15.4 lb)
• Type 2 hollow charge – can penetrate 102 mm of RHA - 3.54 kg (7.8 lb)
• Incendiary
• Type 90 smoke (white phosphorus) – 5.72 kg (12.6 lb)
• Type 90 incendiary – 6.9 kg (15 lb)
• Liquid incendiary projectile – 5.33 kg (11.8 lb)
• Type 90 illuminating – 5.64 kg (12.4 lb)
• Vomit gas projectile – 6.01 kg (13.2 lb)

References

Notes

1. Windrow, Martin (20 Sep 2018). French Foreign Légionnaire vs Viet Minh Insurgent: North Vietnam 1948–52. Combat 36. Osprey Publishing. p. 59. ISBN 9781472828910.
2. Military catalogue of the Japanese military, p. 96
3. Full text of Banking and Monetary Statistics, 1914-1941 : Part I | FRASER | St. Louis Fed. p. 673. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
4. Ness, Leland. Rikugun: Volume 2 - Weapons of the Imperial Japanese Army & Navy Ground Forces (p. 88). Helion and Company.
5. Ness, Leland. Rikugun: Volume 2 - Weapons of the Imperial Japanese Army & Navy Ground Forces (p. 92). Helion and Company.
6. War Department TM-E-30-480 Handbook on Japanese Military Forces September 1944 p 400
7. Ness, Leland. Rikugun: Volume 2 - Weapons of the Imperial Japanese Army & Navy Ground Forces (p. 88). Helion and Company.
8. Ness, Leland. Rikugun: Volume 2 - Weapons of the Imperial Japanese Army & Navy Ground Forces (p. 89).

Bibliography

• http://www3.plala.or.jp/takihome/41-75.htm
• US Technical Manual E 30-480
• Japanese Infantry Arms In World War II, Ritta Nakanishi, ISBN 4-499-22690-2
• "兵器臨時定価、予価、表送付の件 Military catalogue of the Japanese military". National Archives of Japan. Ministry of the Army.
• "Banking and Monetary Statistics, 1914-1941, Part I". Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). January 1943 [1943].